Introduction to Systems Thinking
By Louis Rowitz, PhD
Director
Illinois Institute for Maternal and
Child Health Leadership
Systems Thinking is a way of seeing
and talking about reality that helps us
better understand and work with
organization and communities to
influx the quality of our lives.
Modified by Kim
A system is any group of
interacting, interrelated, or
interdependent parts that form a
complex and unified whole that has
a specific purpose
Which are systems and which are
collections
•
•
•
•
•
Bowl of fruit
Football team
Toaster
Kitchen
Database of client
•
•
•
•
Cornerstone
Tool in a toolbox
Marriage
Local public health
agency
• Community
Whenever you add people
to a collection you almost
always transform a collection
to a system
Characteristics of a System
• Systems have a purpose that defines it as a
discrete entity that holds it together
– Purpose of an automobile……
Take you from one place to the other
Characteristics of a System
• All parts must be present for a system to carry out
its purpose optimally
– Automobile without its spark plugs……
Car doesn’t work
Characteristics of a System
• The order in which parts
are arranged affects the
performance of a system
Automobile with the driver in the backseat
and the tires in the front seat
Systems attempt to maintain
stability through feedback
• Feedback provides information to the system that
lets it know how it is doing relative to some
desired state
Steering car and Feedback
The Iceberg
Events
Patterns
Systemic Structure
Mental Models
Vision
Action Model
Level of
Perspective
Leverage
increases
Action Mode
Vision
Generative
Mental Models
Reflective
Systemic Structure
Creative
Patterns
Adaptive
Events
Reactive
Linear Perspective
AB C D E
Cause = Effect
Feedback Perspective
AB C D E
Thinking in Loops
Sales
are
down
Marketing
Promotions
Orders
Increase
Sales
Backlogs
are
up
Sales
are
Down
Marketing
Promotions
Marketing
Promotions
(B)
Sales are
Down/Up
(A)
Orders
Increase/Decrease
(C)
Backlogs
(D)
All systemic behavior can be
described through two basic
processes
•Reinforcing
•Balancing
Reinforcing Loops compound
change in one direction with even
more change in that direction
Saving
Balance
Interest
Payments
Greater your weight
More you eat
Give Examples
?
?
Balancing loops seek
equilibrium- some desired level
of performance
Use of
meditation
S
Acceptable
stress level
Gap
O
Stress
level
S = Same
O = Opposite
S
Balancing Loops
Actual Level
Desired Level
Corrective Action
Gap
Questions these Diagrams help answer
• Which gaps are driving our system when and by
how much?
• How accurately do we know what each of the gaps
is?
• How are we monitoring the gaps?
• What are the different ways in which we can close
the gaps?
• How long does it take for perception to catch up to
actual quality?
Every link in a system contains a delay
•
•
•
•
Physical
Transactional
Informational
Perceptual
Put the Pieces together
Archetypes
Limits to Growth Template
Balancing Loop Target
Limits or constraints
Growing
action
Growth Process
?
??
?
Limting Process
Actual performance
(that you can measure or observe, that you can
see growing)
Corrective
Action
Leaders work on the system
not in the system